Mark of Athena
by prettyfaceandelectricsoul
Summary: Annabeth isn't on the Argo II.Reyna doesn't have time to sleep.Chiron sends too many heroes off to fight.Piper and Jason aren't meant to be.Sophia and Harley have ideas.Bobby wants to prove that honor can be futile.Yet another take on Mark of Athena.
1. I

It isn't that Reyna doesn't like her subordinates. It isn't even that she wants them to fear and respect her. She just can't help being serious, strict, and okay... _bossy_.

Take now, for example. She's doing paperwork - all of it. The reason the Romans have two praetors is not so that one won't suck up all the power; it _has_ to be because all the paperwork is too much for one person, she's absolutely certain. 

She has to fill out a form for every single scratch someone gets in training; there is a piece of paper with her name on it for every bandage, every meal, and every gods-forsaken _toothbrush_ the legion goes through.

If she happens to hear Dakota informing the newest recruits from the city that, although alcohol is strictly forbidden, sugary substances like Kool-Aid are allowed, it's her responsibility to keep the peace. And letting Dakota addict twelve-year-old probatios to Kool-Aid is hardly doing that.

So she sends the kids back to training, takes Dakota's flask, and dumps his Kool-Aid out.

"Dakota, there is something big coming, something bad. Octavian has seen a war. You are in charge of keeping the Fifth Cohort alive. And you can't do it to the best of your abilities on a constant sugar rush. Get addicted to grapes, get addicted to oatmeal, get addicted to thrice-be-damned _coffee_, I don't care. But if I see you so high on sugar that you can't think straight _again_…"

She makes the appropriate threats, and then sends Dakota back to training, and continues filling out the paperwork that Jason should be helping her with, although his help always ran more towards making her laugh than actually filling out forms. (And even though she won't let herself think it, she knows that if Jason had been there, she would be laughing about Dakota's problem right now, instead of worrying that it would get him and the rest of the Fifth killed.)

If Jason doesn't show up in the next week and a half, then Octavian is going to end up with his position. Hylla has broken off contact, monsters aren't staying dead for long enough, and something bad is happening.

She'll have to stop sleeping, just to keep up with it all.

* * *

><p>Annabeth is alone. She is sitting on a plane with the plans for the first building she designed for Olympus up on the screen of her laptop. They're like old friends, she knows them so well, and that's why she has them there.<p>

She is alone, but as long as she has these plans, she has the memory of Percy spilling juice on her second draft, she has Rachel painting over a copy, she has Katie charging into Cabin Six with a preliminary sketch that the Stolls had taken for some reason or another.

She has Chiron looking proud, and Thalia telling her that it all just looks like a bunch of lines to her. She has her mother's thanks. She has her father's smile. She has Mrs. Jackson's questions, about the building, about the decorating, once the building is intact, and then, whispered, about her and Percy. She has her friends, her family, all just by having these plans.

So she absolutely refuses to feel all alone in the world. She won't start sobbing when she sees blue food. She won't have a pit in her stomach when she sees people with writing on their arms. She's stronger than that.

And she set herself up for this, after all, when she decided that Juliet, Mackenzie, and Sophia were not going to get tangled in the prophecy, not if she could help it. They didn't abandon her.

_She_ left _them_, because when all is said and done, she walks alone.

* * *

><p>Rachel sits on her bed in the Big House, having been yanked from Clarion to help save the world. She sketches her dreams; all of them disturbing.<p>

Annabeth, glowing silver, running through the streets of Rome, from landmark to landmark, her knife out all the time, killing the monsters that are charging her from every side.

Percy, standing very pale, at the feet of a giant, capping Riptide.

A buff Asian boy with the face of a kid standing in front of an African-American girl, arrow at the ready. The girl has a long sword, and her battle armor is strange. Her hands are over her stomach, like it hurts.

Leo, on fire, hugging Piper, who seems unaffected by the flames, but is sobbing nonetheless.

The Hunters of Artemis in a circle around Thalia, shooting at Earthborn, as Thalia tries desperately to summon lightening.

Clarisse and Chris, charging towards a group of centaurs with horns, overwhelmed, but fighting like the demons Rachel secretly suspects they are.

Jason, standing on the top of an eagle, in the middle of a storm cloud, talking to a dark-haired girl with a harsh face, who is on a dark Pegasus. He kisses her, and then they both swoop in on a giant, spears poised to strike.

Nico di Angelo, looking more like one of the ghosts he summons than ever, chained in a cave, with a dark figure standing over him.

A man in an orange jumpsuit driving a forklift towards a hell-hound. There is a woman standing on top with a sword in her hand.

The Stoll brothers, shaking hands with a watery form and then rushing a giant, drawing him into a river.

The earth shifting under a group of demigods fighting little figures that appear to be calling out types of grain, swallowing them, then spitting them back out.

Chiron, outfitting campers for war, and sending them off to fight and die bravely, and maybe save the world.

A pack of wolves, surrounding an army and gradually picking off monsters, under cover of darkness.

The Argo II flying, and she, Percy, Piper, Leo, Jason, the Asian boy and the African-American girl are standing on the deck, and she knows, as she knows all else in these dreams, that the insides of the ship are crammed with demigods, the best fighters both camps have to offer. Others will be coming later.

Rachel sees all this, and more in her dreams. Then she draws it, and shows it to Chiron, Piper, Clarisse, Will, and Malcolm, who are kind of in charge of things now that Percy and Annabeth are gone.

The drawings are prophecies, but there is nothing they can do but try and get the Argo II in the air.

_Hurry_, Rachel thinks, as the visions rush her again.

* * *

><p>Leo frantically hammers, welds, screws, configures, and absolutely anything else that needs to be done to build a boat, anything to finish it quickly. Annabeth left last night, and they should have left too, but something went wrong.<p>

So their best strategist, their leader, even... is gone. Officially, Clarisse, Will, Piper, and Malcolm are in charge. And Leo, who is in charge of the boat, is sort of in charge. Piper is more in charge, as the head counselor of the Aphrodite cabin, but she just makes people do what Leo says, because, hello, if they don't get the damn boat off the ground, then it is literally the end of the world. And Leo has to fix it.

Which brings him back to his original problem - the boat refuses to be fixed. He turns a wrench, tightening the bearings that hold Festus's head in place. He changes the oil, and checks over everything. Literally _everything_.

The boat still isn't working. He curses, conjures a fireball, and tosses it at a scrap of metal.

"Temper, Valdez." Piper admonishes, walking down into the dregs of the Argo II, probably wanting to know if they are any closer to takeoff than they were two hours ago.

"I threw it at scrap metal, not the ship. That's awesome temper control," Leo replies. "Everything should be working fine! I oiled it all, readjusted every little thing down to the millimeter, I even tried talking to it!"

"If nothing's wrong with the boat, it has to be something else. Gaia messing with us?" Piper tells him. "If we tried putting it in the water, and then getting it to start, would it damage anything?"

Leo glares. "Would I make a boat that wasn't waterproof, Beauty Queen?"

"How many times have I told you not to call me that, Valdez? I'll go see what Chiron thinks of it, and get Jason. Hopefully he can lift it into the water right away."

* * *

><p>She isn't on the ship.<p>

Percy is standing there with the rest of the Twelfth Legion, watching people get off the Argo II. Clarisse, the Stolls, Malcolm, Pollux, Katie Gardner, Lou Ellen, Rachel even, everyone he knows from camp, and some people he doesn't.

Everyone but Annabeth.

Clarisse, Malcolm, and a blonde kid he doesn't know step forward. Right as Malcolm opens his mouth, a curly-haired kid comes charging off the ship dragging a girl with black hair. He skids to a stop next to the blonde kid, and solemnly intones, "We come in peace."

The girl with the black hair hits him.

"Leo. We agreed that you weren't allowed to talk."

The curly-haired kid – Leo - pouts.

Malcolm clears his throat.

"I think what Leo was trying to say is that, in interest of stopping Gaia and thus saving the world, we would like to propose an alliance. We unite, go to Rome, and then Greece. If we are strong enough, the gods will help us. We can kill the giants."

Reyna, who is no good at speaking, but very good at bravery, steps forward and says, "We are a democratic people. Your leaders will have to make your proposal before the Senate."

Percy, who is even worse at talking, and an old pro at stupidity - he can hear Annabeth calling him Seaweed Brain even as he starts to speak - says, "Speaking of leaders, where's Annabeth?"

He knows he isn't going to like the answer, not when Clarisse looks at him sympathetically, not when Rachel drops her head, not when Annabeth clearly isn't there.

Finally Clarisse answers. "There was a prophecy. Rachel...?"

Rachel's eyes flash bright green, and she repeats the prophecy that Ella has been mumbling about for weeks.

"We know Annabeth is wisdom's daughter; we know this because she threatened genocide if it was any of our younger sisters. She got on a plane to Rome two weeks ago. She said to tell you she'll see you when we win." Malcolm explains.

Percy's throat closes up and his eyes start to sting, because she isn't there. Wasn't he worth seeing, at least, before they all went off to maybe die?

Gaea says that he'll give up the world to save Annabeth. He knows, in the darkest corners of his mind, that she's too smart to do the same thing.

* * *

><p><strong>My revisions are in. Much thanks to my beta, ., who gives very wise and encouraging advice.<strong>

**As always, I'm not Rick Riordan.**


	2. II

Annabeth checks into the cheapest hotel she can find that doesn't have monsters on the staff. She'll need to start tracking monsters, but she'd like it to be on her terms, thank you very much.

She sets up her laptop, and then pulls out all the stuff that she got at a tech store in the airport. Walkie-talkies; a private Wi-Fi router; a bunch of blue-tooths; a huge map of Rome, and another one of Europe; books on all the monuments that date back to the gods; two more computers; a bubble machine (perfect for IM-ing); and a small TV. (She decided that her college fund would do her no good if the world ended.)

She sets up a command center, because there is going to be a war, right here in Rome. She's taping copies of Rachel's sketches and of the prophecy to the walls when she realizes that hello, she's in Rome. Preparing for a war. Alone.

She screams into a pillow, then gets back to work, setting up Skype, email, and getting one of the computers to monitor Interpol, and a walkie-talkie on the Italian police.

Then she starts going through the prophecy, doing everything she can to decode it.

She falls asleep on top of her laptop, and dreams of the ship, just off the ground, being attacked.

* * *

><p>Jason is still sitting on the deck, remembering every little thing he can about the Twelfth Legion, New Rome, and his old friends.<p>

He vaguely remembers an African boy named Bobby being obsessed with explosions. He remembers all too well a stocky boy named Dakota getting drunk on Kool-Aid. A girl named Gwen, hugging a sobbing little girl and telling her that the monsters couldn't get in. A boy named Larry… He hadn't liked Larry. He _really_ hadn't liked Octavian, who became augur the year Jason turned twelve, and that was when Reyna had come to camp.

He remembers Reyna very well; she'd shown up being chased by hordes of monsters and guys dressed like pirates. She'd run right to the entrance of the camp, then turned around and systematically destroyed every single thing chasing her. He'd had sentry duty that week, and when he tried to step up and help, she'd turned to him and told him that he'd better not take away her chance at revenge.

He remembers the way she'd knelt down on top of all the blood she'd just created, took off her book bag, and took two dogs out; the ring she always wore, and refused to explain; how her hair looked when she was riding her Pegasus; her voice when she was trying not to laugh, and her laugh when she failed.

They hadn't been dating, but they _had_ been best friends. While he'd fought Krios, she'd taken out every single monster that had tried to kill him while he was busy. The praetors had both died, and he and Reyna were raised on shields after that battle.

He remembers how secretly, she'd take off her hard look and laugh like every other person. He remembers how it had felt when she looked at him. He remembers all of it.

He's trying to figure out Bobby's godly parent when he hears a screech. Basilisks. He shouts, "Monsters on deck!"

He hears pounding feet, but the basilisks are advancing. He grabs for the sword Leo had made, the one that was identical to his old one, except the kind of metal, but still didn't feel right, and starts stabbing at one. Nyssa, who was monitoring the autopilot in the control room, took care of the other one. He's about to disperse the dust when she stops him.

"Jake had an idea. Put the dust in here." She produces a small, airtight container. "He thinks that if we keep the dust isolated, it might keep them from re-forming. The dust can't migrate to Tartarus and start reforming, and thus Gaia can't fast track their new life."

Jason does as she says, then resumes thinking. Bobby the bomber, son of...

* * *

><p>Nico doesn't try to get sadistic pleasure from visiting the Romans. Really. They're just so…<em> confused<em> as to what to do with him, and since every other aspect of their lives are perfectly in order, his very existence torments them.

And gods help him, it's _funny_.

Aside from that, Hazel is his sister. She isn't the Bianca replacement he sort of wanted her to be. But she's Hazel. She's sweet, and haunted, and okay, he likes having a little sister.

It's not the same as getting Bianca back, but he might just be okay with that.

When he visits, he expects to see Hazel, mess with Octavian, drive Reyna half crazy, and shut the Lares up for a while. He doesn't expect to find Percy.

When he does see Percy, he knows he has to avoid him. Percy doesn't remember a thing, and if Nico triggers his memories…

A large chunk of the time Percy and Nico have spent together has been spent arguing, fighting each other, or fighting Titan armies.

Nico's not a sensitive guy. He really isn't. But even he knows that if those memories are the first ones to come back, that could be a problem.

So he stays to watch Capture the Flag, because the First and Second have no clue what's coming. Then he stays for the Senate meeting, because he predicts a world class shouting match. Then he says goodbye to Hazel and leaves.

He shadow travels to Rome, because he has to let Annabeth know. Her command center is impressive.

She tries to give him a blue-tooth. He refuses; he fully expects to spend most of the war in the Underworld, trying to stop souls from escaping.

She warns him that Rachel saw him chained in a cave, probably captured by Gaia. He nods and promises to be careful, but he still has to try.

He's helping the furies in the Fields of Punishment when he sees a huge set of doors, off in the distance, that open onto a small Mediterranean island. He goes closer. Something grabs him from behind. He manages to stab it, but when he turns around, he is surrounded.

* * *

><p>Dakota isn't as stupid as he acts. Really.<p>

So when the new kid goes on a quest and takes Frank and Hazel with him, Dakota knows that there is some serious stuff going on.

This has nothing to do with the fact that Reyna was so stressed that she insulted coffee. It has nothing to do with the fact that Gwen died. It has nothing to do with the fact that Hazel and Frank were kind of the best the Fifth had to offer - the stunt with the unicorns? Freaky but powerful. And whatever people say about bows, Zhang is seriously dangerous. And don't even get him _started_ on the new kid.

So yeah. If they're on a quest, Dakota knows that whatever Larry and his podex have to say, there are some seriously bad things going on that need to be stopped.

So he cuts back some on the Kool-Aid. He puts the normal amount of sugar in, and drinks less of it.

* * *

><p>Because when bad things start happening? Dakota has a Cohort to keep safe. Whatever other people say about him, the son of Bacchus has a sense of duty.<p>

Chiron hates sending heroes off to die. He does everything he can to prevent it, but in the end, they have to make use of their training.

But it isn't as if he's going to let anyone go off unprepared, so he emphatically refuses to let the under-tens go. He only has ten of them - three children of Hermes, one of Hephaestus, two of Aphrodite, one of Ares, two of Hecate, and one of Athena. And they _aren't_ going to fight.

Most of them understand. Ares's son, Jesse, doesn't, but that was expected.

Sophia, daughter of Athena, and Harley, son of Hephaestus, probably want to go, but they know enough not to argue; they decide that if they have to stay, they'd better come up with some pretty epic weapons to send to the armies, but that Chiron can at least allow.

The real problems are Hermes's three. If they want to go badly enough, he can't keep them off the boat. They are children of the god of thieves, after all. And they _do_ want to go; Britney worships the Stolls, Clary is recklessly loyal, and Mark is just bored. Chiron sympathizes. But they are seven and eight, all of them. They can't fight in a war.

In the end, Harley and Sophia get to them before they can sneak on the ship, convincing them that they can help make "epic weapons that save people's lives", and if they go, people won't let them do anything interesting anyways.

Chiron has a feeling that he's going to regret their friendship, but he'd regret their deaths more.

Hopefully the camp will survive the friendship of children of Athena, Hermes, and Hephaestus.

If the camp doesn't, the children, at least, will.

* * *

><p><strong>I am, in fact, not Rick Riordan, and I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, Greco-Roman Mythology, or anything else, really.<strong>

**I wish I did…**

**Much thanks to my beta, ..**

**Okay, question. **

**Who here finds Jason irritatingly prefect, yet totally without personality?**


	3. III

Bobby knows that Rome fights with honor and dignity. He gets it, really. He gets why it isn't right to lay traps for unsuspecting enemies. He just thinks that it's stupid.

If there are monsters trying to kill you, then isn't it much wiser (and safer) to blow them up from a safe distance then to risk your podex getting in their face with a pointy stick?

And if, say, you've managed to infuriate Gwen of all people, isn't it much easier to set off a smoke bomb and run then to fight like a man? (He in no way speaks from personal experience.)

Nonetheless, his skill with explosives landed him in the Fifth; his constant pranks that involve explosions generally get him an hour's extra workout; etc., etc.

Rome may fight honorably, but not always _efficiently_.

* * *

><p>The night after the Greeks arrive, Bobby goes to talk to their children of Vulcan - sorry, Hephaestus. He wants to know if the Greeks are the same way about explosives.<p>

Nope. They aren't. There's an entire room on their flying ship dedicated to making things go boom. Great. The girl who appears to be supervising - Nyssa, her name is - takes one look at him grinning and asking the guy leading him - Shane - about Greek explosives, and shakes her head amusedly.

"Oh, gods. Another Leo. _Hey, Valdez_!" The last sentence isn't directed at him. It's directed at a Hispanic boy with curly hair, who is over on the other side of the room, wiring a control disk.

"We found your Roman counterpart. He's irritatingly cheerful and obsessed with explosives. Tell him the rules; he looks like he'll be here for a while. " Nyssa shouts.

"_Bam_! Our Roman homies are seeking us out already. _Take that, Beauty Queen_! See who's irritating and tactless now!" The curly-haired boy (Leo, apparently) shouts into thin air. Then a head pops up from under a table.

"_Repair Boy, what have I told you about calling me that_? Hi," The latter part is directed at Bobby.

Nyssa sighs. "_Leo_. Remember what happened the last time Piper hung out in the workshop?"

Piper winces, like she doesn't like the memory.

"Piper was helping me!" Leo protests. "We were designing machinery to project her voice, in case she needs to charmspeak several thousand people. Using certain types of equipment leeches the power."

Nyssa rolls her eyes, but appears to believe him. Just then, a twelve-year-old kid runs through the room shouting, "_Hit the deck_!"

Everyone does, leading Bobby to believe that this is normal. He hears a swooshing sound, followed by a boom. The room shakes.

He grins. Explosions, chaos, and witty banter. He loves the Greeks already.

* * *

><p>Piper is a key part of the negotiations, but not for the reasons people expected.<p>

No, she's only used charmspeak three times: on the Roman augur, on the Stolls, and once on everybody, to get them to stop shouting and talk like reasonable human beings.

Piper is key to negotiations because she's used to living in a world of adults. She's never had a really good friend her age, until she came to Camp Half-Blood. But there's always been her dad and whoever he's working with. So she's used to a world of compromises and debate.

Clarisse, however, opened negotiations with the sentence, "Okay, punks. We've got a civilization to save, so can we skip the talking and get right to the monster fighting?"

Luckily, peace has come a long way since then. They've agreed that Romans take lead in Rome and Greeks take lead in Greece; that the cabins and cohorts won't be split up; and that they can train each other in fighting techniques. There is one huge elephant in the room, though.

Who are the seven heroes?

Percy, Jason, and Hazel are pretty much automatically it: "sea's son", "son of the skies", and "born of death" couldn't apply to anyone else, what with Nico being missing in action.

Annabeth, being alone in Rome, and the eldest daughter of Athena, seems the obvious choice as well, much to the Roman's… well, the Romans would have preferred to have been consulted.

Leo is the fifth: he's the only fire user in either camp.

It's the other two that people are wondering about.

There are three Greeks and two Romans already selected to go: the Romans want the two to be theirs so that they'll have a majority, and the Greeks think that Piper should be one of the heroes, and then the other one should be Roman.

They can't both have a majority on the quest. And therein lies the problem at the root of the negotiations: someone has to be in charge.

* * *

><p>Hazel is scared: her part in the war will be keeping a family alive. She couldn't even keep herself alive her first try, and her second try certainly hasn't been a cakewalk either.<p>

How is she supposed to keep an entire family alive? On top of that, while she and Percy are definitely going, Frank's position on the quest is in serious jeopardy. People are having trouble adjusting to the fact that the Fifth is, in fact, great again. They never were that much worse, but now that their curse is gone…

Not to mention, a Sammy doppelganger has appeared. He looks like Sammy, acts like Sammy, has the same smile. She wonders if he kisses like Sammy - nervously and sweetly; lovingly, or as close to love as either of them knew.

And she doesn't let herself wonder other things. Like if Leo is a descendant of Sammy's. Or if he is, who did Sammy end up marrying, and having kids with?

If things had been different, would Leo be her descendant?

She forces herself to think of something, anything else. Like… Jason. He had been back four days already, and anybody with eyes could see that Jason really wanted to talk to Reyna. Anyone with good eyes could see that she was scared to talk to him. Anyone with a microscope (or too much time and not enough things to think about) might be able to tell that she, underneath the fear, wanted to talk to him too.

Hazel stretches, then lies on her back on the ground outside her barrack, resolving to take a really quick power nap while everyone else parlays with the Greeks. She is just beginning to fall asleep when something pokes her.

"Hey, Hazel, right?" Sam - Leo - asks.

"Um. Yes. I - I - I have to go. Bye!"

She stands up and takes off towards the stable that had been built for Arion (after she had vouched for his probable good behavior), resolving to take a long ride.

"Wait!" Leo shouts. "_I'm not that ugly, am I_?"

Hazel pales and runs faster.

Unlike Sammy, Leo doesn't chase her.

She takes the ride she promised herself, to Los Angeles and back. She spends the whole time trying to ignore the fact that a boy who looks and acts a lot like Sammy just flew from Long Island into her life on a giant metal ship. It doesn't make her feel any better; actually, it feels like she's dying inside, but Percy said a bath in the river Styx feels like you're dying of pain, but if you're strong enough, you come out (mostly) invulnerable.

Maybe this works the same way.

* * *

><p>"Slap yourself." Piper orders. Leo does.<p>

"Beauty Queen, what was that for?" He asks, the minute the charmspeak wears off.

"If you screw up this alliance, Valdez, _I will kill you_. It will be painful. It will be humiliating. Do_ not_ make the Roman girls hate you."

"You're one to talk, what with the death glares you keep giving the girl with black hair and the way you refused to let that daughter of Venus show you the baths, and the time you tried to charmspeak that guy into giving you his vegetarian taco; I'm pretty sure they're well on their way to collaborating to plot assassination."

"I can talk them out of it, Valdez." Her tone warns him that he's skating on thin ice. "Any other critiques?"

Leo isn't good with organic life forms, so he replies.

"You spend so much time desperately trying to get Jason to like you, you don't notice anything else."

Piper's face goes red, then white, and she doesn't say anything. Leo starts babbling nervously. "Like, when Lacy got hurt in training. Or when Annabeth had a mini-breakdown and started hyperventilating in the middle of a meeting. Or when Malcolm got a girlfriend. Or when Drew dyed her hair red. Or-"

"Enough!" Piper cuts him off. "Go away, Leo. I just…"

She walks away. Leo does what any sane male friend would do in this situation; he runs for his life and sends Rachel and Lacy to go talk to her.

* * *

><p>Annabeth doesn't know what she was thinking, going sightseeing when there was so much to do; pinpoint the locations of monster's camps, see if there are any demigods living in Rome, set the stage to evacuate mortals, improve her Italian so as to make every other thing she has to do easier…<p>

But she's in _Rome_. And Annabeth wouldn't be Annabeth if she went to Rome and didn't go look at the Coliseum.

So she takes a break, after she has the hotel room about as monster proof as it's going to get, and filled with everything a military command center, in both the mythical and mortal worlds, would have. Plus some.

She mailed laptops to Chiron and Malcolm via Air Hermes, with strict instructions to Malcolm to set up a communications link to the Roman camp. She made a weapons stockpile (the Hephaestus cabin turned most of the tool shed into accessories that would revert to weapons a week later, so she got them all through on the plane). She rigged the room with Greek fire.

She has been in Rome for three weeks, and worked for it all. She is ready for a break.

So she's walking through the tunnels under the Coliseum, admiring it all, when she's grabbed from behind.

"What are you doing here, demigoddess?" A gruff voice asks her. She unsheathes her knife and cuts at the arm of the person holding her. She's dropped with a curse, but grabbed again, by smaller hands.

A tall, fit man who looks about forty-five walks in front of her. His right forearm is bleeding. Oddly enough, he's grinning.

"Well, you're not one of Gaea's, not with that spirit. Stupid? Maybe. You're underground. But then again, so are we. I'm Eric Weber, son of Tyche. The lovely lady holding you (put her down, by the way), is Rosalia Caprice, daughter of Mercury. We watch over Rome, make sure that the gods' monuments aren't being defiled by monsters, handle tourists who might know more than they should, and do all those other things no one else wants to do. I started when I was twenty-five, the youngest they let you. I was a camper at Camp Half-Blood before that. My old partner, Melissa, decided to go back to the States. Live an easy life, you know? So Rosalia, a veteran of the Twelfth Legion, replaced her. After a few very tense chats, we decided to get over the Greek/Roman thing. Two years later we got married. She kept her name, because changing it on the legion registry gets quite tricky, or so I've been told. Now you know who we are. Kindly return the favor."

"Proof, please," Annabeth asks, although her instincts say he's telling the truth, or something like it. Rosalia holds out her arm. She has the tattoo. Eric pulls out a necklace. The beads are right for his story.

She decides to believe them, although she isn't about to tell them anything important. They know about Gaea, that much is clear, but they obviously don't make much contact with the camps. "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. Ninth-year camper, leader of the Athena cabin, architect of Olympus. I got to camp when I was seven, went on my first quest when I was twelve, helped defeat Kronos the year I turned sixteen, and came here on vacation two weeks ago."

"No, you didn't." The daughter of Mercury glares at her, blue eyes flashing. "The rest is true, but you're leaving out some very crucial things."

A third voice chimes in, "Good. It means she hasn't changed a bit."

Annabeth turns ninety degrees, careful to keep Rosalia and Eric in her line of vision. She gasps.

"Mark! Chiron said you were trying to make on the pro wrestling circuit."

The son of Ares shrugs. "I lied to Chiron; Chiron lied to you. They're telling the truth. We guard Rome. And we need your help."

* * *

><p><strong>And iiiiiiiiiiiiiiits me. With edits! <strong>

**Thank you to my beta ..**

**Thanks also to my cousin, who inspired the character of Bobby, who was expanded upon just to utter one sentence. He hasn't said it yet, but he will, don't worry. **

**I'm not Rick Riordan, although what with the wait for the real Mark of Athena, I bet he's procrastinating too.**


	4. IV

Every year, on the fourth of July, the whole of New Rome holds a feast on the Field of Mars and the citizens of New Rome and the Legion all become normal Americans at barbecue. (Well, normal plus exhibition duels and Hannibal the elephant.)

And this year, it's been ten days since the Greeks arrived, eleven days since a huge battle, and the Romans are ready to relax.

There was some talk of canceling the barbecue to keep negotiations—which are finished except for the crucial matter of who the seven heroes are—but Reyna shut them all up with one look.

Reyna knew people. She knew her soldiers inside out; she knew how to make them do whatever she needed them to, and she also knew what was best for them. And right now? They needed a break, or the Legion would kill each other. And the Legion needs more death like it needs another Octavian.

Thus there everyone is, thousands of demigods and legacies gathered, safe from the outside world.

Gwen is trying to get Dakota's Kool-Aid away from him—damn him for being nineteen and tall!—because he's already drunk enough to make a whale fly.

Leo, Nyssa, and Christopher are setting up fireworks, being assisted by Bobby, who's taught them how to make his special creation; a missile type-thing that could be fired like a super exploding arrow.

Piper is supervising them ("Leo, don't you _dare_ carry those within five feet of the flame pit. I don't care how well you made them, it only takes one spark!"), looking more angry than usual, and less confident, but doing a remarkable job of hiding it; while Lacy stands next to her, glancing at Bobby and blushing.

Hazel is hovering a few feet away with a can of soda, staring at Leo like she still can't believe he exists.

Reyna is fixing a dispute between Larry, whose podex apparently made an unwanted intrusion between Jamie and Nora, and Nora, who does not appreciate her brother's smothering, thank you very much. Eventually, the matter is resolved (Larry will keep his podex to himself, Jamie will be respectful to Nora, and Nora will refrain from killing her brother), and Reyna goes to get food.

She is intercepted by little kids from New Rome, whom she hoists onto her shoulders and helps climb onto Hannibal and Frank, who is a pachyderm for the occasion.

She asks a few of the aurae serving food to catch anyone who falls off, then gives up on food and starts walking toward Temple Hill.

Reyna would never tell anyone, but she needs a break too, just a little bit. And this barbecue… it isn't a break.

She's walking over the bridge when she realizes that she has a shadow. She spins, using her right hand to unsheathe her sword and her left goes to the dagger that no one knows she keeps in a sheath around her ribcage.

She's deadly with the sword, but it's the knife that she values, really, because she carried it off the pirate ship, and she learned to fight with that knife. She used to practice with Jason, knife to sword, her sorcery against his lightening. Her beauty against his… whatever he had.

And now she's spinning, and her hand is to her knife, but it's her sword that she's drawn. And Jason is there, and this is wrong.

Jason is confident, funny, and perceptive. She was the one who knew how to use people; he was the one who could. She knew how to keep them alive; he knew how to teach them to live.

She had the ideas, he had the people skills and the humor. And they were best friends.

And now he's standing there.

"A sword, Rey? I remember you as the knife type." His voice is the same, but something is changed, something has happened. He hesitates on _remember_, and this is the first time Jason has ever seemed breakable.

"Ah, Grace. Do you? Ten days back. Ten days without a show of remembrance."

Jason, it seems, has remembered how to follow her words, like he was reading her mind.

"Some things. You were being chased by pirates when you came, and you never told anyone but me why. Dakota writes Gwen love letters when he's at his most lucid, then burns them. Bobby likes to blow things up."

She shakes her head. "You could have been told that; Bobby has blown up three things since you got here. Do you remember anything else, then, or did you follow me because I'm needed?"

Jason walks closer, seeming just a little bit more like the guy she knows.

"Hannibal is allergic to peanuts. Octavian defends his left side with a shield that has a beheaded Beanie Baby on the front. Gwen hates water more than anything, because before she came here her aunt tried to drown her, but she sacrifices to Neptune daily for letting her live.

Larry has a habit of interfering; you once threatened to have his podex surgically removed is he didn't get it out of your business. You belong to the Fourth Cohort, and you refused Octavian's invitation to join the First, because, and I quote, "I can't serve someone who kills Beanie Babies. You might scare my dogs."

You made praetor for saving my podex. You secretly love little kids, and whenever you were allowed to go to New Rome, you'd teach the little girls from Flavia's daycare spells, things like making bubbles and changing their hair color. You are much nicer than you let on, and you have a pretty smile."

He keeps inching closer, and she's not backing up.

"Try something you couldn't have found out when you got here. "

He's only an inch away from her. His arm comes up, and he taps her rib cage.

"You keep a knife here."

"Very good, Grace. Come with me."

They walk toward Temple Hill together, to the Temple of Jupiter.

She'd planned on going to her mother's temple, but Reyna is the idea girl. And she thinks that she knows what will make Jason's memory come back in full.


	5. V

The camp is watching the Fourth of July fireworks, which are many times better than Chiron expected them to be, considering that they were created by eight and nine year olds; a son of Hephaestus, a daughter of Athena, and two daughters of Hecate.

He is, for once, not having got pull apart couples that are enjoying themselves too much. He isn't stepping on beach blankets everywhere. There are four children manning the fireworks, and he and six others are watching. All of the satyrs are out searching; all of the older demigods are gone. The nymphs are watching from the woods, but they who draw life directly from the Earth cannot risk drawing its wrath, so they can't come out and interact anymore.

So seven beings sit on the beach and watch fireworks explode into the grand finale, something that Chiron hadn't know the children were capable of. They launch rockets of Greek fire into the canoe lake, and from the spray comes a giant Iris message. And then another one. The daughters of Hecate cast a spell keeping the mist in the air, and the Iris Messages link.

Sophia waves to the first Iris Message, and then turns to the second.

"Annabeth, everybody's gone, so Maureen, Evie, Harley and I did the fireworks. We IMed you and Camp Jupiter as the grand finale. The other IM is right over there. Evie's rotating them so that you can talk to the people there too. "

Annabeth, who had been woken up by the IM, smiles at her little sister's enthusiasm. She can hear Harley, making similar explanations to Leo. She sits up in bed and starts talking to Sophia.

They're discussing the wisdom of befriending different types of people. Sophia is having difficulties working with the son of Ares, and the twin boy and girl from the Aphrodite cabin, and since there are only ten people at camp, it shows.

"Wisdom alone isn't enough. You need someone to strategize with. Everyone has a use, and even if you don't get along personally, be nice. Someday you might need them," Annabeth is telling Sophia, hoping she'll listen. Annabeth paid for not knowing; how hard would it have been to take Silena just that little bit more seriously?

And then Percy is huge behind Sophia, looking tan and healthy.

"Hey, Wise Girl."

"So you remember me, then, Seaweed Brain?" She asks, hoping against all hope that he will say yes.

"Yeah. I remembered your name and face the whole time; I drank gorgon's blood and the rest came back." he replies.

Annabeth wants to squeal. Instead she asks, "Why do I get the feeling you didn't know if you were drinking the medicine or the poison?"

Percy blushes a little. "Because I didn't?"

"Percy! First you go and make yourself mostly invulnerable, then you decide that, since it is nearly impossible for you to be killed externally, you have to drink something that may be deadly poison?"

"I actually kind of… lost… the Curse of Achilles." he responds tentatively.

"How do you… Percy, I don't even want to know." She sighs, and is suddenly conscious that this isn't a direct IM, this is IM Annabeth talking to IM Percy, and their connection is at Camp Half-Blood. She is alone, on her end, but the campers and the people with Percy are watching with definite interest.

Malcolm pipes up, "Hey, Annabeth. How's Rome?"

His gift for bad timing has made Malcolm both useful, and yet irritating again. It seems that no matter how many years pass, and no matter how many jerks try to eliminate life on earth as they know it, some things really do never change.

"My work is going well. I haven't seen much of the city, but I've located some local demigods and worked out a sort-of alliance with them. We all want the monsters and giants gone, so they've agreed to take orders from me. Apparently they know the prophecy too, and they think that I will save Rome, based on some local legend. I've set up a command base, ready for use. Anytime you guys want to join in, everything's in place."

"We've almost hashed out an agreement. I think we'll be off by the eighth, barring new issues." Malcolm replies, like a soldier reporting to commander.

"Any complications, and I mean _any at all,_ I want you guys setting up a constant link on the laptop I sent. Things are getting urgent here. We need you."

She's as regal as a queen, as the goddess she half is. Because Annabeth? She was born for this. But her eyes are pleading a little bit too, because she misses the people who have been her family for almost ten years.

Malcolm nods.

Then Leo's behind him, asking about where to land, the weather, the winds, how strong the Mist is, and any other things he might need to know to land a flying ship.

And Piper's there, casting Leo angry and curious glances, and Chris is showing a little kid how to pick pockets, and Clarisse is hiding a smile and retying her bandanna.

Annabeth blinks back tears, and then starts talking.

Frank went elephant for the Fourth, because it's a special occasion, and okay, maybe he likes rubbing his awesome powers in people's faces just a little bit.

He sees couples milling around everywhere from his vantage point feet above the ground, and Hazel is wearing shorts and a red T-shirt, and she's staring at Leo, and looking sad and confused. Her face hardens after about half an hour, and she walks away, but he recognizes that face.

It's the face that she had made when they were watching her sentencing. It's a face of sad resignation, like the world is tossing her through a never-ending spin cycle, and she's still expecting to get used to it, any minute now.

So he turns back to human, aurae catching the kids on his back, and walks after her.

He hears the kids laughing at the fall, but he's already almost to Hazel; and then he's putting an arm around her shoulder, and they're walking, almost invisible, back to the barracks. (Because at this point, it's as close to home as either of them is going to get.)

When they get there, she lies down on her bunk, and a tear manages to slip out. Frank is scared of crying girls, but he's more scared of Hazel getting hurt, so he asks if anything is wrong.

She starts sobbing, and he pats her back awkwardly, wishing that he knew what to do. Then she starts talking.

"When I was alive, the first time, I mean, there was a boy. Sammy Valdez. We were friends. He was funny, and nice, and smart, even if the nuns didn't think so, and they didn't, especially when he knew something that they thought wasn't proper knowledge for a poor Mexican boy.

He was a groom, after school, in a stable where the white people, the ones in krewes, kept their horses, because his family needed the money. I was a dishwasher, at a restaurant for the fishermen.

Sometimes he would sneak me in and we'd go riding, on the horses that the lords (because, gods, that's what they were, really) got their ladies, who would never go near the creatures because it was 'dangerous'.

On my birthday, when I was turning thirteen, he took me riding and gave me a cupcake. We shared it, and he kissed me. And that night my mother brought me to Alaska.

Gaea told me he died of a heart attack in the nineteen-sixties. He grew up and had a family, of course, but he never forgot me. I didn't even know if I believed her, but then Leo showed up, and he looks exactly like him, and they act a lot alike too, only… Sammy is dead, and I don't know…

If Leo is related to him, then who did he marry, was he happy, did he hate me? If he isn't, well, Sammy could have been reincarnated. Or maybe it's just coincidence, and now I've been treating Leo like a ghost for a week and a half, and he has no clue why, and I have no good reason, except that I really miss Sammy."

She's sobbing again, choking out words into not-quite-sentences, and she probably needs a good cry, but this is something else.

Frank can barely understand her, but he gets enough out of it to realize that she had a boyfriend before she died, and Leo looks and acts almost exactly like him. He, for the first time in his life, gets the violent urges that the Mars line is rumored to have (and the Ares line definitely does), and he just wants to rip off Leo's head. Who does he think he is, making Hazel cry?

And then he'll kill Gaea for bringing it up, and then he'll kill everyone else for not noticing, and then—

Frank suddenly realizes what he's thinking. What the hell is wrong with him? For a minute, he'd been…

Gaea was most frightened of him. For a moment, he understands why. Then he stores away his thoughts, and starts rubbing Hazel's back.

* * *

><p>Jason stands awkwardly in his father's temple, under the hole in the roof, and watches Reyna. She's moving like her steps are a dance, often rehearsed, always remembered. And then she's lighting a fire in the middle of the floor, and throwing in herbs that she produced from the pouch she keeps at her waist.<p>

She tells him to get rid of absolutely any metal on him, and then she's chanting prayers to Jupiter, summoning him. There's a bolt of lightning, and a tall, strong man in a toga is on the end of it. And suddenly, Jason is seeing his father for the first time his life.

He kneels hastily, while Reyna remains standing behind him, and his father is talking, in a very loud voice, asking why he has been summoned.

Reyna replies, looking as confident as ever, except for her shaking hands.

"I am Reyna, daughter of Bellona, praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. I need to beseech a favor. Your son, Jason Grace, has had his memory wiped. It is coming back, but not quickly enough, and he is finding it difficult to resume his duties without the knowledge he has acquired in fourteen years of service. I beg you to restore his memory, and offer you my own memory in return."

Jupiter nods.

"I will restore his memory, and leave yours intact yet. You are both meant to save Olympus, you both _have_ saved Olympus, and when you have again, we will review the day's actions and settle the question of owing. _Valete_."

At once he is gone, and nothing's happened; until moments later, a bolt of lightning streaks through the ceiling and hits Jason square in the head. He collapses, and Reyna rushes to him. She feeds him ambrosia, and waits.

After ten full minutes, his eyes flicker open. She rubs her own eyes, to make sure they're working, and looks again. Jason's eyes are open, blue and fierce, crackling with power and warmth, strength and humor, discipline and mercy. Just the same way they did the last time she saw him.

"Welcome back, Jay." She tells him.

"Rey. I always remembered you, you know," he lies.

He gets up, and stands next to Reyna, both of them facing the huge statue of Jupiter.

"Thank you, Father."

Thunder rumbles, and Reyna thinks of Jupiter's expression, and wonders if he isn't trying to say, _Don't thank me yet, not until you've lived through this war; not until we've settled our affairs._

She slips her hand into Jason's, and feels small for the first time in eight months.


	6. VI

Reyna wakes up under the bridge to Temple Hill next to Jason.

She doesn't feel disoriented. She's a daughter of the war goddess, and she was made for a nomadic life of battle. So she's never confused in the mornings.

She remembers Jason getting his memory back. They'd left the temple of Jupiter, and sat under the bridge, where they'd gone (when they were reasonably certain that the Legion would survive without them) to rest, back before everything started.

They had talked for hours, having left the barbecue at dusk; and they'd seen the fireworks exploding in the distance, and then the sky had gotten darker; the kind of dark that signifies that dawn is to come. _Nondum lucet, _Reyna had justified, as she'd fallen asleep. _It's not light yet_.

Jason is stirring next to her. She shakes him—the sun's positioning says that it is ten o'clock, and they missed breakfast and are within ten minutes of missing the first round of negotiations for the day. She has to wear her toga to negotiations, which means that she has to return to the camp, and so does he.

He wakes up and experiences his customary moment of confusion, then understanding lights up his eyes. "I remember."

It isn't a question now. Reyna nods, because for the moment, she isn't sure if she can keep emotion out of her voice.

She takes a deep breath, and then forces her voice into steadiness. "Yes. Your father interceded, breaking his own rule. I think this means that the gods have realized the threat and are going to help now. We need to inform the Senate."

"The Senate can wait. Rey, we've been over this. The senators are all soldiers. You are their commanding officer. You frighten them. If you are a little late, then they will wait. Stay here and sleep."

Jason has been back, really back, for less than a day, and already she remembers why they balanced each other so well; why life in the Legion was better with him also in charge. (Percy really doesn't compare, and he clearly doesn't want his position. Jason wanted it.)

"As always, Grace, I'm forced to remind you that Vitellius kicks up a fit. And who has to deal with it?"

No response.

"That's what I thought."

"Okay. If you really want to get up that badly…" Jason smirks.

Reyna pretends to reflect, then stands up in one fluid motion. _"Up,_ Grace. We have work to do."

Jason pouts and stands up. She looks at him and snorts, and gods, it's a little bit like he never left.

They walk back to the forum, because she has duty, and he would follow her anywhere.

* * *

><p>Piper is explaining Iris Messages to the Romans, who are somewhat awed that the Greeks have tools and strategies they don't. They aren't mad, thank god. She isn't feeling up to averting World War III.<p>

She walks to the senate meeting with Bobby, Nyssa, Lacy, and Dakota, who is really funny, and also widely liked, even if he is a bit… off. He's a great opportunity for a higher-up Roman (besides Jason, and when are he and Percy going to work out who's whose leader?) to like them. Piper feels guilty thinking of people in terms of what they can do for her, but there it is.

They arrive at the Senate House at five past ten, and they sit in the extra seats that someone has gotten them so that they can sit with the rest of the people who are allowed to speak. The meeting starts in five minutes.

The senators file in, and the spectators fill in the gallery. Percy squirms in his chair. Reyna and Jason aren't there. Percy, another example of nonexistent diplomacy, opens the meeting on time.

"Um, Reyna and Jason are late. So we're gonna start without them. Because we have another long day of—"

Then Jason and Reyna run in.

"We have important information pertaining to the quest and one of its confirmed members." Reyna says, not out of breath, or disheveled. Jason, who looks like he ran through a windstorm to get there, isn't out of breath either.

"Reyna did a magic-ritual-summoning-thing that I don't completely understand," he explains. "And then my father came, and I got struck by lightning, and my memory came back in full."

Percy pulls off his toga, and throws it at Jason. "All yours, man. Seriously. "

Jason awkwardly catches the toga. He doesn't have anything to toss at Percy, so he just nods, and says, "Likewise."

And then Jason takes his seat in the praetor's chair and Percy goes and sits with the Greeks. There is a short round of applause, because politics aside, one of them (both of them) just recovered from a mental illness of sorts, and no one can be upset about that, really. Then people sit back in their seats, and the meeting begins.

Jason isn't a talker, so he stands up and braces himself for objections when he says:

"I propose that Frank Zhang and Piper McLean be the final members of the quest that will be commencing in Rome, and continuing to Greece.

Frank is a centurion, winner of the Mural Crown, and has returned successfully from a quest. He is also a son of Mars, and a legacy of Neptune who is able to shape-shift.

Piper is a daughter of Aphrodite, and head counselor of her cabin. She has the ability to charmspeak, and has returned from a quest successfully as well. "

Octavian stands up. "Although I personally believe that more Romans would better serve our purposes, the auguries are not in opposition to this grouping. Therefore, I reluctantly second the motion."

Reyna, who knows more than anyone about Octavian's politics, is the only one whose jaw doesn't drop. He sees no way to seize power in opposing their allies, and with the arrival of the Oracle of Delphi, he could in fact lose power. So he's frantically abandoning a sinking ship, and aligning himself with the people he thinks will survive. She still hates Octavian, but he's useful now, so she lets everyone be shocked for a minute, then she stands herself.

"I also support the motion. Are there any objections?"

A few objections are voiced and refuted. Someone thinks the Greeks are overrepresented. Someone else thinks that the quest members will be determined by the Fates, and that they are wasting time voting on them. Someone else wants fewer girls, preferably none.

None of the objections are serious, and the motion passes. Another motion, one that says the ship should leave the sixth, passes with no objections, and the meeting is dismissed, only three hours after it had started.

As she leaves, Piper muses that if they'd known all it would take was Jason's recovery, they could have skipped the meetings and gone straight to fixing it.

But Reyna had it covered. Of course.

* * *

><p>Annabeth is afraid of the respect the few demigods in Rome give her.<p>

Here, she isn't Annabeth who's been here forever, Annabeth who did stupid stuff with us as a kid, Annabeth who has been our best strategist since she was ten, Annabeth who we all knew was going to end up with Percy.

_Here_ she is Annabeth: fighter, general, and hero. She is respected and obeyed, but not loved. She knows that this is better, logically speaking, and she likes it, a little. She _is_ half strategic-goddess, and this is what she was born for.

But really, it isn't the same as fighting with a group of people who've known you all of your life. She knows that, without a doubt, if she told these people to fall back and let her make a last stand, they would. If she told them to sacrifice her, they would. They will save her from anything but herself.

It is better, she knows. In battle, it could come down to her or the world. And the world is the choice that people have to make. But it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel _better,_ certainly.

She misses Percy, and gods, she should be grateful to know that he's alive and remembers her, but it isn't enough. She wants—

Mark comes in with a stack of papers and a nervous look on his face.

"Um, Annabeth, the camps sent us some stuff via Air Hermes. Since they leave tomorrow, they want you to have papers saying, like, who's coming, what their strengths are, who works well with who else, and who can absolutely not be trusted with explosives; that sort of thing. They expect to arrive in a week, I think, so they figured that this would be a good time to strategize."

Annabeth nods, not understanding why exactly Mark looks nervous. She'd been there when they'd gotten the news of the campers' plans. And besides, Mark's known her forever. Her legend isn't that huge, is it?

"Okay, Mark. What else?"

"Um. I don't know how to say this, but Rosalia said that I had to, because if I didn't it could be bad, and then I said why can't you say it, and then she said it wasn't right, her having just met you, and then—"

The son of Ares is babbling. So whatever this is, Annabeth is going to hate it.

"Just spit it out, Mark."

"Um, I really don't want to say this. I want you to know that I did _not_ want to have this conversation."

"I'm waiting."

"Um…don't… er, that is to say, you should… um, take precautions against… um… ah, pregnancy."

"Mark." Annabeth stands up, frighteningly slowly.

"You have three seconds to run. And tell Rosalia to come see me, would you please?"

Mark runs. He isn't suicidal.

Rosalia comes in shortly after, looking slightly less terrified than Mark.

"What was Mark talking about?" Annabeth spits out, furious.

"The auguries are for a birth, before the war is over. We'd hoped it wasn't you having the kid. You're our general. But in a week, you're going to see your boyfriend for the first time in almost a year."

Annabeth nods tersely. "What—exactly—do the auguries say?"

"One of the seven heroes will have a child, continuing one of the most ancient and sacred bloodlines in the world. That child will play a key part in the war simply by existing."

Annabeth sighs, wearily. Prophecies rarely mean what they sound like. Hopefully auguries are the same way. But she doesn't have time to muse right now. She has a week to plan a war.

"I'll tell the others; try and make them be cautious. In the meantime, tell Mark I won't kill him. I think I scared him."

Annabeth does not have time to deal with this. So she pushes it to the back of her mind, and hopes she can stop it.

* * *

><p>Sophia wonders if her mother approves of what she's doing. She's working with people of dubious qualifications, excepting Harley, to build war machines for people who probably are working on ones of their own.<p>

She's nine years old, and even though she's wiser than the average kid, she's also ADHD, so she's never given these thoughts the consideration they probably deserve.

Still, they linger like that bad taste when you drink OJ after brushing your teeth.

She turns away from her plans to Harley, who is working on… something.

"Do you think this will work? Or is it too top-heavy?" She asks him, pointing at a sketch of an armored car mounted with a Celestial bronze cannon.

"You would need supports here, and here," he points out. "And you couldn't carry much ammo. Would a machine gun be okay?" He considers the drawing, building it and taking it apart in his head.

"Yes, I considered that, but the mechanisms are too sophisticated to do in Celestial bronze, aren't they?" Her grey eyes are focused, but she's blinking. She's tired. They all are.

"I'm insulted. I could do it, I think, but I might need help. I think I could teach you to do the necessary, though. Might be good for you, exercise these flabby arms." Harley pokes her, and runs away.

"I'll show you_ flabby_, you meanie!" She chases him outside.

Chiron, who has been watching the whole time, smiles. It is nice to know that there are some kids who might be able to come out of this war still kids. It's what the ones who won't are fighting for, after all.

* * *

><p>Sometimes Piper wonders if it was all a dream; if she's going to wake up back at the Wilderness School and all will be perfectly fine… Okay, better… normal… <em>human<em>…

Then she wonders if she wants that, really. If she wants to go back to living a lie.

It's been eight days since Leo enlightened her as to how she'd been acting around Jason. She and Leo have been pretending the conversation never happened, but she couldn't help but think that maybe Leo was right. Then she had to think about why she was acting like that, and then she had to think about what she knew about Jason Grace, really.

He didn't have much of a personality, until they got to the Roman camp. He was confused, and kind, and not a total idiot. He was handsome, sure, but there was nothing that set him apart from most other demigods. He wasn't noticeable, in and of himself; until you added the powers and the baggage, he was just another guy, as far as Piper was concerned. Unlike every crush she'd ever had, he wasn't funny or rebellious. She knew almost nothing about his life until they met Thalia, and by then she'd been almost in love with the guy.

All of her memories of him were fake, and his personality wasn't what Piper normally went for. So why him? Why did she like _him?_

What gave her butterflies when he smiled? Why did she spend so much time daydreaming about him? Who controlled these things? Her mother did.

Her mother as Venus, her mother as Aphrodite, her mother as her mother… As far as she knows, her mother never creates love. It wouldn't be quite real, she doesn't think, and Piper's mother is a sucker for true love. Love is something her mother creates only to get what she wants. She made Helen love Paris, so Paris would give her the apple. She made Romeo love Juliet because she had made a deal with Apollo, to give his future children something to write about, in exchange for an end to sonnets about her beauty.

The love goddess would screw with relationships, to test them and make them stronger. But unless something was in it for her, she would never create emotion where there was none.

And certainly Piper hadn't liked Jason. Her memories, the ones that were altered, they're coming back a bit too. She'd liked someone a lot. And it hadn't been Jason, seeing as how she had never met him, although she can't quite remember who it was yet.

So what happened?

Piper analyzes every moment she spent with Jason. Her fuzzy, not-all-there, real memories keep off the butterflies, for long enough for her to go deeper.

When she acted particularly girly over Jason, it tended to be right before a big fight. If Jason was meant to save the world, and she was meant to help…

And her mother does have a sense of self-preservation…

And what better tool than a daughter?

Could Aphrodite have arranged the 'perfect' romance to motivate the demigods meant to save her?

She could have. She would have. She did. (Piper has to think that, because hello, if her liking Jason isn't real, then when they don't happen, it won't hurt.)

So Piper decides to get over it. Her life is her own, and no amount of divine intervention will change that. She was named for her voice. She lived for her spirit. And beyond birth, and pain, the gods have done nothing for her. So she will save them, because they are her family. But her life does not belong to her mother, or to any other god.

Annabeth is the one who stands alone, but Piper can be the one who stands for herself.


End file.
